Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has opened up on his experience of working with Rohit Sharma, giving a sneak peek into latter’s leadership style during his tenure.
In a recent video uploaded on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel, Dravid highlighted Rohit’s care for the team and clarity of vision.
Rohit, like Dravid, began his tenure as India's full-time captain in November 2021 and went on to lead the team to T20 World Cup triumph last year. Aside from that, he captained the side to the finals of the ODI World Cup and the World Test Championship in 2023.
“It was really good. Firstly, the thing with Rohit that I always felt was that he deeply cared about the team and he was very clear about it,” Dravid said.
“Right from the first day, he was very clear about how he wanted to run the team and what was important to him. And that's really important in any relationship between a captain and a coach, especially the way I coach,” he explained.
Dravid’s mantra as a coach has always been to give captains the space to lead. “I always like to believe that it should be the captain's team. I've been a player and I've been a captain as well, but a captain has to lead in terms of the direction he wants to go in, and you have to support him and help him in that.”
He acknowledged that Rohit’s clarity made his job easier. “Of course, you sometimes need to help a captain in terms of getting that clarity and understanding what is required. But with Rohit, I thought he was very clear about what he wanted from the team—how he wanted the environment to be, how he wanted the atmosphere to be, how he wanted things to run.”
Dravid further stated that Rohit’s experience immensely contributed to his success. “He had so much experience over the years, and that really helped. He was very clear on those things.”
